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Emergency responders in Aichi Prefecture received a call at 1 a.m. on Oct 9 from a frantic young mother whose baby boy had nearly drowned in the bathtub.
Fire department personnel rushed to the scene of a one-room apartment in Kariya City, where a 10-month-old baby boy nearly drowned after his mother, 24, left him unattended in the bathtub. An announcement by prefectural police explains that after bathing her infant son, the woman removed the plug from the tub’s drain pipe and left the room while her baby was still lying inside, thinking that the water would soon recede.
Unbeknown to her, a bath toy covered the drain and stopped the flow of water when there was still about 30 cm of water left in the tub. The mother said that she “was engrossed by the Internet in the other room” at the time of the incident, and was shocked to find her son floating face-down in the water when she went back to get him.
Apparently, the young mother is currently unemployed and the apartment where she was staying is actually that of a male friend, though at the time of the near-drowning, the woman and her infant were the only two people present.
As of right now, there is no news as to baby boy’s status or state of recovery, just that he was unconscious and in critical condition when he was rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night.
Source: Yomiuri Online
Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- Mother on trial for suffocating five-year-old son -- Woman, unaware she was pregnant, delivers baby into cesspool -- “Someone is dead in your room” phone call triggers dead body incident
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21 Comments
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sillygirl
I D I O T mother
YongYang
Over 30cm of water for a baby to have a bath???? Please, will Japan educate its new mothers / fathers about the BASICS.
Frungy
... maybe this is the reason for Japan's inverse population pyramid, not too few births, but too few surviving idiot parents?
CrazyJoe
What a nitwit. I once heard that a baby in a bathtub with only 10cm of water can drown if the mouth and nose are blocked and panic.
kickboard
It's not about the level of water. It's about never leaving an infant / toddler unattended in or near water.
irishosaru
What is the suggestion that the mother is an addict? Had she been cooking instead, would she have been described as a cooking addict?
Gerard van Schip
I bathed both my kids in a full sized bath, difference being that I was in the bath with them. Leaving an infant in any level of water is irresponsible.
The whole Internet addiction is just to make a juicy story. Irresponsible mum leaves infant to drown is not a catchy title.
Disillusioned
Any parent half an ounce of sense and responsibility never leaves little kids in the bath alone. Another fine example of bad parenting.
gaijinfo
Something tells me that this mom didn't put a lot of conscious thought into having this kid...
Also, why is this "young mother's" name not in the article?
Maybe she's a minor herself?
CGB Spender
One of the many negative side-effects of Internet!
Heza!
Wow the downside of the internet, it makes some parents become stupid :( I hope the child survives.
budgie
The joke is that Japanese society and media will be all about how evil the internet is. Ooh, look at what it does to people!
Fact is, poor parenting is to blame, period. If the mother hadn't been on the internet, she'd have been distracted by something else.
Maria
This has nothing to do with the Internet. It could just as easily have been the TV, a book, a phone conversation, or (as stated above) cooking.
I hope the kid recovers fully.
No Miso
I know we all lead hectic lifestyles, etc, but does the fact that the mother was giving the baby a bath at 1am not sound odd? Babies need sleep, and wake up briefly (!) for food breaks, but bathing at that time really sounds odd.
gaihonjin
Possible cover story.
KnowBetter
Some people should NEVER be parents. There is no excuse for this woman's actions. So sad!
Cos
I don't even believe the story. If the baby recovers, he should be proposed for adoption.
So there had been more... Everybody has seen how big Japanese babies are. I hope the police investigates to find the real story.
smithinjapan
The internet is not to blame here -- she could just as easily been engrossed in today's climax series game on TV or something. This is just plain old bad parenting, and I pray the boy recovers and the mother has learned from her mistake. Get one of those baby bath things.
Scnadal.Lova
you left your baby alone in the bath tub just to go on the internet? An internet addict you are.
cwhite
you can drown in just 5cm of water. I'm more shocked that she would leave the baby for even a second. 10 months old? just one slip and the baby hits their head on a solid surface. How long did she vanish for? When was she going to dry the baby? The drowning part is just one part of the incident, the rest is just down to some really bad parenting.
Cos
May she dried him at midnight before the bath. She has a weird sense of order. Who else empties the tub before getting out of it or taking their kids out ?